


we'll do it all

by madsmurf



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon Compliant, Complicated Relationships, Established Relationship, Eventual Relationships, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, Past Relationship(s), Peter Parker Has a Family, Protective May Parker (Spider-Man), Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-06 19:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13417605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madsmurf/pseuds/madsmurf
Summary: When May first met Tony Stark, he was Steve Carter and very much in love as he could be with the cute boy that visited her diner every day. The three of them get tangled together until Tony cuts the string leaving May and Ben to pick up the pieces.or:an alternate universe where May, Ben and Tony were in a relationship prior to MCU events which play out as you see them until Civil War where Tony reenters May's life, and goes from there.or, or:May doesn't like that Tony Stark guy because he broke Ben's and hers hearts.





	1. everything, on our own

**Author's Note:**

> oh boy my first WIP in like literal years.
> 
> fun.
> 
> OKAY Y'ALL BUCKLE IN FOR THE WILD RIDE.

May hates Tony Stark.

Once upon a time she could stand to be in his presence without wanting to slap his smug goatee off. 

That was a long time ago; when they were all young, and so incredibly stupid.

And here he sits, on their lounge, smarmy smirk in place, like he owns the place. She bites her tongue to stop the vile words that she’s sure she’d spit out if she had to witness his smirk for one more second. Tony’s smirk slips slightly, the longer she glares and she doesn’t stop the satisfying feeling that settles in her gut.

“May,” Tony starts, rubbing his hands against his knees. “I just, I’ll just get to the point? Your nephew, Peter, he’s quite gifted and when I saw the name on the application I just had to come in personally and offer the internship.”

May snorts. “Cut the shit Tony. Why are you really here? It’s certainly not to offer Peter some internship.”

Tony sweats.

May leans back and fixes Tony with a stern stare.

“It really is about an internship. No funny business.” Tony pauses, trying for a charming smile “Unless you want --” he stops in his track at her vicious glare.

Whatever May wants to say in that moment is swallowed up by the front door swinging open and Peter coming in. May stiffens in her seat and glares across from Tony for him to be serious. Tony winks, and despite his bravado she can tell that he’s nervous.

What follows is Tony insisting that the internship is the real deal, and the fact that Peter agrees blows her mind just a little. She’s not impressed by Peter keeping such a massive secret from them. What surprises her is Tony telling the truth.

In her shock, she agrees to Peter going on some pre-internship retreat. The second Peter is whisked away in the shiny black car, she regrets agreeing and spends the weekend worrying and drinks far too much wine; wishing that Ben was there with her so they could both worry about Peter being in the company of Tony fucking Stark.

May might not be a genius, like so many of her family members, she could put two together.

Here is what she knows: Peter comes home with a black eye and an alibi video with a very bruised and beaten Tony Stark insisting that the retreat went very well. She knows that Tony had been in Berlin during the retreat. What with that airport fight. The very fight that had that new vigilante Spider-Man beating up a giant. She knows something isn’t right. And she knows that Tony Stark is in the middle of it.

It’s with this knowledge that she ends up drunk dialling Tony Stark, wine in hand.

“What are you up to Carter.”

Tony doesn’t say anything, probably too shocked that she had called him by the name that they had known him by all those years ago.

“Building a pair of legs, you?” he says after she begins to wonder if he had hung up on her.

“Aw get sick of yours did you?”

“Nope. They’re for Rhodey.”

May pauses, her wine sloshing on to the couch. “Oh.” she says quietly. “I’m sorry. He’ll recover?”

“Yeah. If I can do anything about it.”

An awkward silence spreads across them and May takes a swig of her wine. “Um. So. Point. What are you up to?”

“What are you accusing me of exactly May?”

“Peter, Spider-Man.”

There is another incredibly long pause and May has half a mind to just hang up.

“Peter’s gifted, you and I both know that. I’m just helping him reach that potential. The spiderling on the other hand was just around at the right moment.”

“Peter came home with a black eye, insisted it was some kid named Steve. I’m not an idiot Tony.”

May really wants to reach through the phone and strangle Tony with his stupidly long pauses.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you that Spider-Man and your nephew Peter were the same person.”

It’s her turn for a long pause, drinking the rest of her wine, she speaks softly, her voice tight. “You’re right. I wouldn’’t.”

With her hands shaking, May hangs up, and throws the phone across the room; the thud it makes as it hits the ground is deafening.

May hates Tony Stark.


	2. we don’t need anything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May hates it when Tony is right.
> 
> (Or May finds out).

“What the fuck!”

Internally May is screaming and imagining Tony — Fucking — Stark’s head on a pike. How dare he go behind her back and, and do this. Turn her sweet brilliant nephew into a, a fucking vigilante! It went against all the moral codes in her being. All of them.

Damn Stark and his “I am Iron Man” bullshit.

Peter is scrambling for words, any words to try and calm her down but oh boy no way mister was she slowing down. She repeats her outburst like a mantra as she paces back and forth in Peter’s — too tiny for a growing boy — room, tugging at the ends of her ponytail.

It’s after Peter has long given up trying to calm her, and had instead opted to sit on the very edge corner of his top bunk, in his sweatpants and sweater, that was just that bit too big.

(The literal edge! What did he think he was? A cat?!).

May struggles to center herself. She can hear a voice that sounds an awful lot like Ben telling her to breathe. So she does. It takes three long and even breaths before her hands stop shaking, and six more before she can talk.

“Give me your phone Peter.” She demands in the softest voice she can manage, it wasn’t Peter’s fault Tony Stark was the devil reincarnated.

“Why?” Peter asks, even though he’s already leaning forward and handing it over. Perfectly balanced. It’s terrifying and amazing all at once.

“I’m going to give Stark a piece of my mind.”

Peter falls from his spot, scrambling to his feet. “What no! You can’t. May!”

May pushes Peter on to his bottom bunk, and sits next to him, still scrolling through Peter’s contacts.

Where was Tony’s number?

The longer she looks the angerier she gets. Where was it?!

“May you can’t.” Peter says softly.

She looks up and glances at Peter. He is smaller somehow and _oh_.

Oh.

Breathing through her nose, she waits two seconds before speaking; sounding more calm than she feels.

“Who do I contact?”

There better be someone or there’d be a Iron Man shape in the Brooklyn Bridge, very soon.

“Happy Hogan.” Peter answers dutifully, wringing his hands together and tapping his foot lightly against his knee.

How he learnt how to sit like that, May will never know.

So, she rings. And very calmly— because it wasn’t Peter’s fault, it wasn’t —asks Happy Hogan to put Tony Stark on the phone.

Happy Hogan tells her that Tony was out of state.

Her anger simmers.

Oh.

Oh okay, it was going to be like that. Fine.

May thanks Happy Hogan for his time hangs up. Her hands are shaking.

Peter is fiddling with a loose thread of his too bright blue comforter, not looking at her. 

All her anger evaporates.

She pulls him to her, making sure his head was in her lap, and strokes his hair.

They stay like this until the room goes dark.

“I’m proud of you.” May says softly in the dark where words hold deeper meaning.

Peter’s breath hitches, and she holds him gently as her beautiful brilliant boy breaks.

“Love you May.” He croaks back into the darkness, when they both curled together and ready to drift.

May presses a kiss to his temple in reply. The I love you too kiddo goes unsaid, and understood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy Tony is in for it.
> 
> I figured I’d skip to the end scene because we’re aware of what happened in movie so like
> 
> Now I can dive into moving post-Homecoming forward and work in their backstory woo.
> 
> Again, comments (!!!!!!!!) and kudos (!!!!!) are super motivating. Just sayin’


	3. or anyone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May talks. Tony listens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear backstory is coming.
> 
> I may be projecting a little with May.

It takes everything she has to stop herself from swinging and landing a punch square in Tony Stark’s face. Like, she really wants to him but she knows better. She’s an adult damn it. So, she might as well act like one. Even if Tony’s jaw was calling her right hook.

Peter is bouncing on the balls of his feet between the two; his shoulders hunched and hands tugging nervously at the strings of his hoodie. May can see the beginnings of what she’s sure is some ridiculous science pun graphic. She winks and the tension in his shoulders seem to melt.

May squares her shoulders and glares at Tony.

Tony tries a charming smile but changes halfway so that he was every bit the shark business man that she knew all those years ago. May had only seen that look when he spoke about his father. She doesn’t know how to feel with it directed at her.

“Mr. Stark.” She says curtly.

“Mrs. Parker,” he makes a sweeping gesture towards the lounge in his (way too big for one man) compound. “Shall we take a seat.”

She nods sharply, too angry to speak and too unsure she’ll be able to be calm.

They sit.

Peter and May across from Tony.

It was like sitting on clouds and really May has to give it to Tony for never being wrong when it came to the finer things. It was just everything else.

“So, you’re mad.”

Understatement of the fucking year.

May lets Tony continue— they both know what he means.

“But really think about it this way. Peter is a billion times safer in that suit than his onesie. So, honestly you should be thanking me.” Tony says, leaning back in his chair the air of smug righteousness thick.

Peter squeaks from his spot, and if May wasn’t so busy glaring Tony down she would have noticed the wild hand gestures and wide eyes. Instead she leans forward, calm.

“Mr. Stark.” It’s satisfying to watch as Tony’s eyes widen just a fraction. “You claim Peter, my fifteen year old nephew, is a billion times safer in the suit. Yet,” she pauses, her hands clasped tightly in her lap, glaring daggers “you took it away.” The flinch is all the fuel she needs for her simmering rage.

May holds a finger up when she can see that Tony is about to defend himself. “No zip it, this is where I talk.”

Tony deflates, just a smidge, at her words. She wonders if he realises their significance. Probably. Good.

“You took it away because you thought Peter was being irresponsible. Yet, you couldn’t take five minutes to explain the situation which in turn could have prevented the events that had transpired that day.”

May is in full lawyer mode, and Tony realises it if the way his shoulders tense and his mouth opens in soft surprise.

“If you hadn’t taken the suit away, again because of your lack of communication, Peter wouldn’t have had felt the need to go after a highly dangerous arms dealer. He could have contacted you directly, and not been ignored by your security. He wouldn’t have had to save your plane from ending up in the wrong hands. If you had just communicated none of what has transpired would have needed to happen.”

May takes a breath, never once breaking eye contact with Tony.

“So no, Mr. Stark I will not be thanking you.”

Tony, again, tries to speak but May has hit her limit.

“If you want anything from us Mr. Stark I suggest you learn to communicate, until then we’ll be leaving now.” May stands.

Peter scrambles to his feet, eyes wide and in awe.

She waits until she’s at the exit before looking back, her glare like steel. “And give Peter your damn number.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you think????


	4. if I lay here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May, Tony and Starbucks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still no backstory but shhhh...we gotta build it my pals. You get conversations instead.

May doesn’t talk to or see Tony Stark for a month after their meeting.

If May had cried herself to sleep, wishing Ben was there with her, that night. She can only hope that Peter thought it was a my-nephew-is-Spider-Man thing and not a Tony-Stark-broke-their-hearts thing. Not that Peter would know about that second thing. They had never talked about it — especially not in front of Peter, not ever.

The thought of Tony Stark mentioning it to Peter had sent May into a spiralling panic that had kept her up for the rest of the night. The holes in Mrs Delgado’s case had thanked her, her body had screamed at her the rest of the day.

Peter doesn’t go out the entire month, instead choosing to hang out with Ned, and even going on bonding nights every Friday night. May is thrilled even if a part of her wonders if he’s only doing it because it’s what he thinks she wants him to do. And that breaks her heart. May doesn’t want him to hide or stop but she also doesn’t want him to get caught. The Accords were a mess. A terrifying mess that makes her wonder if Tony had even bothered to take the time read them.

That’s brings her to drunk dial Tony Stark again, wine in hand. God she was going to become an alcoholic at this rate.

“Did you read it?” She asks the moment he answers.

Silence greets her and she hisses and grumbles just so there isn’t that numbing quiet.

“Because it’s terrifying. They will throw Peter in some dingy cell without a trial if he gets caught. And I’ve met Karen. If they catch him with an A.I then it’ll be so much worse. Like what the were you thinking Tony? Did you deliberately do it to hurt Ben and I? I still don’t understand what we did wrong; it’s been sixteen years and I still don’t get it.” A sob rips it way through and her hands still won’t stop shaking; the wine is everywhere and for a split second she thinks it’s blood and she sobs harder. “What did we do wrong?”

“Nothing. It wasn’t either of you it —“

“Oh cut the bullshit Tony. That’s the oldest excuse —“

“Can we talk? In person? You still like strawberry frappes right? The Starbucks around the corner from your apartment?”

Tony speaks in a rush, like he’s terrified that she’s going to cut him off.

Biting her bottom lip, she looks down at her wine stained blouse and sighs heavily. She owes it to Ben to find out what Tony Stark has to say.

“Okay.”

She hangs up before she can change her mind.

—

Tony is waiting in a secluded corner in Starbucks when she walks in thirty minutes later, and she strides up to him. A tingle of childish glee shoots through her when she manages to pull the chair back and sit down in one solid movement. And without breaking eye contact!

“May.” Tony says softly, pushing the ice cold strawberry frappe towards her.

She stirs it, her shoulders tense. “Tony.”

An awkward silence suffocates them both, and May slowly drinks her frappe in hopes that it will stop. As the minutes tick May begins to feel that gut wrenching anxiety creep in. Tony is constructing paper buildings. The nostalgia it brings is like being shot. Tremors go through her hands and she struggles to stop them. Tony looks up and her throat tightens at the soft look of concern.

“May. If this is too much…”

May lets out a shaky laugh. “We haven’t been in a place like this since fuck, forever.”

Tony chuckles, abandoning his paper project. “Didn’t Ben do that ridiculous What’s New Pussycat thing?”

May smiles despite feeling like she is drowning. “Yeah. I thought there was going to be a riot when it came back on.”

Tony grins, and May gets a glimpse of the man that she once loved just as much as she loves Ben. “Who knew Benny had such a devious side.”

May flinches at the ease that Tony says Benny. Tony falters at the look on her face. “Too soon?”

“You think?” She snaps, her grip on her glass tight.

Tony’s shoulders hunch and he smiles sheepishly. “I’m sorry.”

May snorts, stirring her straw. “I’m sure.”

The awkward silence comes rushing back.

“I’m terrified.” May whispers after what feels like a decade, picking at her napkin. “Terrified that I’m going to wake up one day and Peter’s not —“ hot tears prick of her eyes, and her bottom lip trembles. “I don’t want to lose him Tony.”

“You won’t May. I promise. That suit has every protocol for every situation. Like every situation and I’m going to be constantly improving it. Nothing bad will ever happen. Not on my watch. And he won’t get caught.”

May lets out a bitter laugh. “Forgive me if I don’t believe you.”

Tony chuckles, looking down at her paper confetti pile. “That’s fair but I thought about what you said and I’m willing to give it a shot if you want to work with me.”

May sighs softly. She wants to yes, if only for Peter and yet she can’t bring herself to say the words.

Tony taps his fingers against the table, smiling. “Did you want another?”

May looks at her empty glass and back at Tony’s sincere face, and again she’s hit with the harsh thoughts of the what ifs. What if Tony had stayed? What if they had fought harder? What if they had spoken up sooner? What if?

“One more.” She whispers, ignoring the tiny voice in her head that tells (screams at) her to say no. “Then on Monday we’ll sit down and go through everything. And I mean _everything_.”

Tony grins, raising an eyebrow. “Everything?”

May snorts, and glares. “Instant Kill? Really? He’s fifteen.”

Tony looks guilty as he stands to go get their order. “Yeah, okay. That’s my bad.”

He’s halfway up to the counter before May shouts “And I want caramel!” The stumble he does is worth every stare. “And a chocolate muffin!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you think. Pretty please. I’m begging y’all.

**Author's Note:**

> yeah.
> 
> let's see if I can get a story going with this.
> 
> comments (!!!) and kudos (!!) are great motivators, just saying.


End file.
